New Years Eve manicure

What a year 2010 has been! It has flown by so quickly and I am so blessed to have been able to share it with all of you on my blog. I want to thank each and every one of you for all your wonderful support in 2010!! You have all made my year so much more enjoyable =)

Here is my very rushed New Years Eve mani. I don't really like it but I don't have time to redo it unfortunately. I should have just stuck to using one of the OPI Burlesque glitters on all fingers! x) What have you got planned for New Years Eve? I'm off to a party tonight which should be fun! I'm not much of a party person but I'll make the most of it hehe.


Here's what I used:

Thumb – 2 coats of China Glaze Light As Air and stripes using Kiss nail art stripers in white and black. I also added a purple flower dazzling from Essence.

Index – 2 coats of Ozotic Pro 601. I then freehanded a french tip using BYS Pink With a Punch and used Kiss nail art stripe in silver glitter for the smile line.

Middle – 2 coats of Ulta 3 Snazzle and a purple rhinestone in the centre.

Ring – 1 coat of Misa High Waist Hue and 2 coats of OPI Show It and Glow It!.

Pinky – 2 coats of China Glaze Empowerment. I then did vertical stripes using Kiss nail art stripers in white and silver glitter.

I hope you all have a safe and happy New Year! Here's to a great 2011 filled with happiness and lots of nail polish and beauty items!!

Image courtesy of http://www.mantrabar.ie/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/sydney-fireworks1.jpg

Xmas swap package from Christina

I have for you today an awesome Christmas package I received from my dear friend Christina from Cels deco nails. This is our 3rd swap already (how time flies when you have so much fun!) and she continues to spoil me absolutely rotten x) Her package also happened to arrive on Christmas Eve which was so fast!


Luckily I took this photo as soon as I opened the package because the chocolate Santa was gone in about 5mins lol. It was delicious!! I also love those types of lollipops so I had to hide them before I devoured them straight away haha.


From L - R:
Models Own Disco Mix, Pink Lady, Blue Moon and Pure Purple. My first Models Own polishes YAY! I've always wanted to try them =)


From L - R:
Isadora Graffiti Nails Crack polish in pink, Barry M Instant Nail Effects in black, Dusky Mauve and Hologram. These polishes are so awesome and speak for themselves =D The nail effects didn't survive transit unfortunately as the cap came loose and it dried out =( Does anyone know a way of rescuing it? Dusky Mauve looks so pretty and I can now see why people made such a huge fuss about Paradoxal.


From L - R:
Essence Color & Go Space Queen, Choose Me! and Glisten Up!. I've just changed my nail polish to Choose Me! and it's GORGEOUS! Thanks for crossing it off my wishlist Christina!


From L - R:
Blixz nail strips, Essence nail polish remover pen and Korres Mandarin lip butter stick. You know me so well Christina! I LOVE remover pens and lip products (plus it's Korres to boot yay!).


Some delicious Greek treats! Thank you to Christina's hubby for choosing the snacks hehe. I am sending big virtual hugs your way Christina in thanks for yet another fabulous package! I have so many awesome goodies to try now =D I actually haven't tried some of the polishes and items from our last swaps so I have to get a move on! I hope your package arrives soon too.

Have you done any swaps lately? What goodies have you received?

Thanks for looking!

Icing Rebellious patterned NOTD

I have for you today a quick manicure using one of the lovely polishes I received in my swap with Freshie that I showed you yesterday. I just could not think of a good title for the post though so boring I shall be! I decided to try out Icing Rebellious first with some added konading as I don't have many colours like this in my collection.


I'm terrible at describing colours but I'd say Icing Rebellious is a pale rose taupe colour. It's not something I would have chosen myself as I find I don't really suit these sorts of taupe/greige/beige colours. Maybe because I'm pale..? After putting it on, I was so pleasantly surprised that the colour actually looks OK on me! I'm so happy that Freshie sent it to me because I LOVE the colour and it's simply gorgeous! That's one of the many wonderful things about swapping - you get to try colours out of your comfort zone and usually it ends in a very pleasant surprise =) Now you would expect this type of colour to be streaky when applying and need at least 2 coats right? Below is just 1 medium coat for opacity!


The formula is a little difficult to control though and I flooded my cuticles a few times but this isn't a huge deal as the colour is so light and a remover pen is always helpful ;) It also dried very quickly to a glossy finish (bonus when you're konading afterwards!). I'm impressed with Icing polishes and I hope the other polishes are just as pigmented and pretty on the nail.

Rebellious is a very work appropriate colour and I got loads of compliments today on the beautiful colour from patients and workmates alike. It is so work appropriate that one of my patients was actually quite taken aback at my mani and said to me: "What, no bright nails today 'chelle?". Haha!


I then used China Glaze Admire to stamp full nail design from Konad plate m64. I then added some small pink rhinestones that I received from Viva La Nails to the middle of the pattern.

Are there colours that you don't tend to wear but are then pleasantly surprised when you find one that suits you?

Thanks for looking!

Swap with Polish Freshie

I completed some swaps this month and I was lucky enough to have 3 swap parcels arrive on Christmas Eve! It was like Christmas morning that afternoon let me tell you! I couldn't wait to open them all up and play with my international goodies. First package I'm going to show you is from lovely Freshie from Polish Freshie.


So many pretty polishes!


From L - R:
Sinful Colors Hottie, Purple Diamond, Dancing Nails and Pinky Glitter. I love Sinful Colors polishes! They are great quality for the price and I only wish these were more readily available in Sydney.


From L - R:
Icing Sunlit, Glitz & Glamour, Rebellious and Paparazzi. My first Icing polishes. The glitter topcoats look like loads of fun!


From L - R:
Color Club Wild Orchid, Untamed Luxury and Ulta Cocktail Waitress. My camera clearly isn't colour accurate haha. Untamed Luxury is a gorgeous green NOT blue as pictured above. I couldn't be bothered to tweak the colour as it would have made the other 2 colours funny. Greens, purples and neons can be such a pain sometimes! x( The Ulta red is simply stunning!


Freshie also included some thoughtful extras. The little bottle is bubbles which I gave to my boyfriend's little niece as she loves them! My sis kidnapped the tube of M & Ms immediately after I opened the package and devoured them within 15mins haha. I didn't even get one!

Thank you Freshie for this fantastic swap package! I love the colours and I can't wait to try them all out =D

Thanks for looking!

Nfu Oh 50 NOTD

I have for you today my NOTD using Nfu Oh 50. I don't think these polishes need an introduction! Especially the much desired flakies *drool*. I received this very special polish (my very 1st Nfu Oh!!) from my dear friend Christina from Cels deco nails in one of our swaps. I nearly passed out when she told me she was sending this beautiful polish my way!

Nfu Oh 50 contains flakies suspended in a light purple jelly base. On the nail the flakies go from blue to green depending on the lighting and is just BEE-YOO-TIFUL!!! Below is 2 coats of 50 layered over 2 coats of China Glaze Grape Pop topped with a coat of Color Club Vivid Color Intensifying topcoat. You can see Grape Pop fully swatched here. I really like using Grape Pop as a base for flakies for some reason! I did it here and here for Nubar 2010 hehe. I think it's a great alternative if you don't want to layer over black.


Bottle shot:

What a sexy bottle!!
A close up shot of the flakies below. As you can see, they can look blue or green! For this pic, I've used my boyfriend's Sony camera (TX9 if you're wondering) so it looks a little different from my other photos. I'm still trying to figure out how to get good macro shots of my nails with my new camera!


I don't know why I waited so long to use it! It's stunning on the nail. Application wasn't difficult even though the formula was a teensy bit on the thick side. I found I had to move some of the flakies around on the nail to get an even layer. Another pic for you of this wonderful polish:


Thank you for sending me this beautiful lacquer my friend! I want more x)

I wanted to do some shopping at the local shopping centres today but there were just way too many people so I gave up. The boy and I ended up going to Pancakes on the Rocks for lunch and then just doing some grocery shopping. Pancakes on the Rocks is always yummy and I usually end up ordering the same old things each time. I love their sweet pancakes so I had Strawberry Patch pancakes and crepes. 2 buttermilk pancakes is too filling for me so I get half and half so I can enjoy both!


Yummy fruit cocktail that I nearly froze drinking haha:



The boy had the Farmers Brunch crepes with extra Italian sausage (soooo yummy!) and a poached egg. The egg was hard though =(


Thanks for looking! =)

Christmas pressies, Boxing Day mini haul and Charlie & Co. burgers

Hello ladies! For those of you celebrating Christmas, how was your day? I hope you had a wonderful day and enjoyed being in the company of family and friends. I had a very quiet Christmas Day. Since it's Summer here we have a cold lunch of seafood, salad, cold meats and dessert of pavlova (except I totally forgot this year so we didn't have it BOO) and then I usually visit the boy's family for dinner. This year however most of his family is overseas so we didn't do too much. I received some wonderful gifts from the boy and my family. We don't usually do big gifts as that's saved for birthdays and anniversaries ;) I also received 3 wonderful swap packages on Christmas Eve which I'll post about later!


My parents gave me a Country Road voucher as the tote bag I had my eye on was out of stock so this way I have a year to choose a style I like yay. You'll notice an I.O.U from my mum for a bottle of nail polish LOL. She rocks! My sister's present isn't pictured because it's being shipped to me from JB Hifi - Criminal Minds Season 4! Woot. The boy was very naughty and gave me the newest Maroon 5 album as well as the Marc Jacobs Daisy Pop Art edition EdP!

Daisy is one of my favourite perfumes and how cool is this red and black bottle! It came in a really cute clear bag and had a small sample bottle of Vera Wang perfume too.


The boy and I went to check out the Boxing Day sales early in the city as he wanted to purchase a few things. So many people! I only picked up 2 things as I bought too much stuff in HK and I also didn't find the savings to be that much. I guess I expect dirt cheap prices haha. I did pick up a pair of black Miss Shop heels for half price which was nice. I wasn't even in the market for these as I need a pair of nude heels but these looked great on and I do need to replace my pair of black dress heels so it was perfect timing!


I also got these cute pair of bow studs from Sportsgirl with an extra 30% off. I have a thing for bows =p


I've been wanting to go to the much hyped about Charlie & Co. burgers at Westfield Sydney and finally got the chance to try it out for lunch. I got the Wagyu & Co. burger - which comes with beetroot relish, pickled gherkin and aged cheddar on a sesame bun:


Also the parmesan and truffle fries:


I was underwhelmed by the food. Maybe I chose the wrong burger but it definitely didn't live up to the hype or the price for me. In all honesty my local seafood shop does MUCH tastier burgers! The bun wasn't soft and the patty wasn't very flavoursome. The pickled gherkin and beetroot relish just didn't really blend together well for me either. The parmesan and truffle chips were delicious but not worth the $8 price tag. Rather disappointing as I was really looking forward to it.

What did you do on Christmas Day? Did you check out the sales too? What did you buy?

Merry Christmas!!

Hi ladies! I want to wish everyone a very safe and merry Christmas! I hope it's filled with good cheer, great food, presents and most importantly lots of loving family and friends =) Here's the simple Christmas manicure I'll be rocking for a quiet Christmas Day with my family.


Pinky, middle and index fingers: 3 coats of Ozotic Pro 604. Another awesome holo from Ozotic Pro!!
Ring finger: 1 coat of China Glaze Salsa and 1 coat of China Glaze Ruby Pumps.
Thumb: 2 coats of China Glaze Emerald Sparkled.

Have a wonderful day!

Festive Christmas manicure

My post today will be short and sweet as I've run out of creative juices at the moment. I'm also not in a very festive mood - I'm still in my post holiday slump and it's taking longer than usual to get back in to the swing of things. I wanted to do 10 different designs but I drew a complete blank when I sat down to polish my nails so this mani is very simple. As usual I ran out of days to do all the festive themed manicures I wanted haha. Here is another Christmas mani for you all =)


My thumb was a failed attempt at Christmas lights - I definitely need more practise at freehand nail art. I used some more of the awesome water decals I found in HK and this time around it was much easier to use them. You can't really tell in this pic but I tore my left thumb nail today!!

The polishes I used:


Pinky: 2 coats each of China Glaze Mistletoe Kisses and Party Hearty.

Ring finger: Gold gradient nail using China Glaze Midnight Kiss for top 1/3 of the nail and 5 Golden Rings on top 2/3 of nail. I then placed snowflake and angel nail stickers which I hauled in HK.

Middle finger: 2 coats of Ulta 3 Lily White topped with 1 coat of China Glaze Frosty. You can see the lovely shimmer up close! Frosty was also fantastic over the white because it covered the streakiness of 2 coats hehe. I then placed a stocking water decal on top (also from HK).

Index finger: 2 coats of China Glaze Ruby Deer and Christmas Tree water decal on top (also from HK).

Thumb: 2 coats of China Glaze Sugar Plums as base. I then used CM nail art striper in Pearl to draw the wire and then used yellow, blue, red, metallic green polishes for the lights.

I then topped it off with a coat of Color Club Vivid Color Intensifying topcoat (2 coats for some fingers). I very kindly received this from Color Club NZ and I'll be using it for my upcoming manis. So far so good!


Do you get times when you've planned something fun and then it just doesn't evolve when you do your manicure? I hope this passes soon!

EDIT: I also updated my "Where to buy" page tonight so take a look Aussie ladies!

Thanks for looking =)

Ozotic Snowman manicure

Hi ladies! How are you all doing? All ready for Christmas on Saturday? Yesterday was so cold in Sydney that it felt more like Winter than Summer! I had to run back inside the house to get a jacket and I nearly got blown away by the wind walking to the bus stop! I thought this would be a perfect time to try a snowman manicure which I saw here on YouTube. It was also an excuse to finally try out my newly acquired Ozotic Pro polishes!


Ozotic Pro polishes are much raved about in the nail community but even us Aussies have trouble getting our hands on them! Such is life I guess. I finally managed to get my hands on some and I was most excited to try the holo polishes after seeing wonderful swatches on blogs. For this mani, I used a base colour of Ozotic Pro 617 which is a stunning holographic blue polish from the High impact holographic series.


Man oh man it is a beautiful scattered blue holo! It's an in your face holo polish - just the type I love as you all know =) Above is 2 coats without topcoat. It has a very pronounced holo effect even indoors and just dazzles in the sunlight. As I polish my nails at night I couldn't get a pic of just the polish in the sun unfortunately.

Close up:


I'm still getting used to my new camera and it decided to do something weird in the pic above haha. In a way it was good so you can see the holo goodness blurred compared to the actual polish! Excuse the ragged cuticles - the sudden cold yesterday and my laziness to apply cuticle cream lately has caught up with me. Anyway, the application was a little disappointing for 617. The 1st coat dragged so I had to work quickly or it created bald spots but this isn't unusual for holo polishes. I did use a base coat so next time I'll try it without to see if it makes any difference. A thick 2nd coat solved the problem though and drying time was excellent. I didn't use topcoat to maintain the holo-ness.

Bottle pic:


As you can tell I need some practise with freehand nail art! When photographed it looks better than it does in real life =p I used Nfu Oh Nail Creation specialized artistic paint in white (which I hauled in HK) for the snow and the body and applied it using a dotting tool. I then used a dotting tool to apply Nfu Oh Nail Creation specialized artistic paint in black for the buttons. For the nose I used Color Club Wham Pow! and for the arms Color Club Charity Ball.


Here's a bonus pic for you! I managed to snap a pic in sunlight after work today as I left work 5 mins early and managed to catch the early bus. HOLO!!!


I so wish I had hunted down Ozotic Pro earlier! I purchased a few more too so you'll be seeing more soon hopefully. I have soooooo many untrieds >.< Do you have any Ozotic Pro polishes? What holiday manicures will you be rocking this season?

Thanks for looking!

China Glaze Party Hearty Xmas skittles manicure

I know some of you must be terribly bored with all the China Glaze holiday 2010 manicures out there, but hopefully you're like me and aren't tired of seeing these festive polishes! I have a quick Xmas skittles manicure using China Glaze Party Hearty over some festive colours.

My hands are looking a bit lobster-ish here..
I wasn't overly fussed with skittles manis before but I think they're a great way of trying numerous polishes in one go and are a lot of fun too. It's also a great conversation starter!

And here too! ARGH.
I used 5 polishes in total for my mani. I started off with a base of Color Club Vitabase nutrient nail strengthener and then applied 2 coats of Ulta 3 Snazzle on my thumbs, Ulta 3 White Lily on index fingers (I could have used another coat however I was lazy and also I was going to be laying glitter over it so didn't bother), China Glaze Jolly Holly on middle fingers, China Glaze Midnight Kiss on ring fingers and China Glaze Ruby Deer on pinkies. I then used 2 coats of the awesome Party Hearty on all fingers and topped it off with Poshe topcoat.


All I have to say about Party Hearty is that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT. I'll be using it again that's for sure! It was a little difficult to get some of the larger red glitter onto the nail but it wasn't too bad. I didn't think too much of Jolly Holly in the bottle and was actually going to give it a workmate who loves green polishes but I'm so glad I didn't! It's such a wonderful dark green and I don't own anything like it. I was also going to gift Midnight Kiss to another workmate but it's such a lovely gold foil I'm keeping it too hehe.

Thanks for looking =)

Candy cane manicure

Omgish I cannot believe that it's only 11 days until Christmas! Where has this year gone?? This time of year is always fun and I'm particularly liking the holiday season this year because of all the fun Christmas manis I can do! It's especially fun with the awesome polishes from the China Glaze Holiday 2010 collection that I've been dying to try out. Here's a fun candy cane manicure that I wore today using some of the polishes from the collection. My nails will be nubbins for a while as I broke about 5 wrestling with suitcases on the return home from my holiday!


I used 3 polishes in total from the collection - China Glaze Phat Santa, Frosty and Mrs.Claus. First off I started off with a base coat of Color Club Vitabase nutrient nail strengthener which I kindly received from Color Club NZ. I'll be using this on my poor weak nails for my upcoming manis and I shall do a review later!

I'm sure you've all seen and read about this fun collection so I won't go into too much detail about the polishes themselves. I used 2 coats of China Glaze Phat Santa on all fingers except accent finger were I used 2 coats of Frosty. I then added a thick coat of Mrs. Claus to thumbs to create a thumb accent. The polishes all applied really well for me - formula was smooth and easy to apply.

To create the candy cane effect, I used Kiss Nail art striper paint in white to freehand diagonal stripes. I am quite out of practice at the moment having not done nail art for the last 3 weeks so please bear with me =p


I picked up these cute Christmas water decals in Hong Kong and applied the candy cane on my accent fingers. These were a little more difficult to use compared to the Viva La Nails decals - I had to soak these for a while longer before they would come apart from the paper however they were still simple to use and look fantastic.


Close up of the water decal:


Hope you like it! Have a great start to the week ladies and thanks for looking!

My Hong Kong 2010 hauls - *PIC HEAVY*

Hi ladies! I'm back home after my 3 week holiday and am feeling pretty rested and relaxed. The only problem is that my night flight home has totally stuffed up my sleep routine! Doh. So I decided to blog early this morning and show you my nail and beauty hauls from HK as requested. I also got a new camera too YAY! Warning - this post is PIC HEAVY.


Now not everything pictured is for me OK! Some stuff is for swaps and gifts but I just threw everything out of my suitcase and took a photo. I also bought some Winter clothes and other miscellaneous stuff which I haven't unpacked yet. I did go a teensy bit overboard this year though I must admit with the beauty stuff - I exceeded my baggage limit even though I had already put stuff in my mum's, my sister's AND my boyfriend's luggage! HAHA. Well I had to fully take advantage of the fantastic exchange rate didn't I? Plus I stock up for the entire year until my next trip back. Major shopping ban coming up for 'chelle now!

Here's some close ups of the interesting stuff:


Polishes from a lot of different brands that I have no way of accessing here! I won't go in to detail in this post as there would be just waaaay too many pics. I'm not sure I'll actually keep all the polishes I bought for myself as I see some dupes now that I'm home.


Nail art stuff from Bonjour. I was hoping to find more nail art stuff in HK but there wasn't as much as I had hoped. I picked up some really cute nail stickers and water decals though which I won't show in detail as I'll be sending some away in swaps ;)


Konad sponging supplies and Konad image plates m64, m70 and m77 from the HK Konad distributor. More info about this in an upcoming post!


I stocked up on some Japanese nail magazines! They weighed an absolute tonne and because of this my mum complained about them to no end =p But I saved at least $10 for each mag so I'm happy!


BB creams to hopefully last for the year. I already showed you guys the Missha and Lioele ones hehe.

Make up Forever High Definition primer in #1, Face & body liquid make up and Super Matte Loose Powder.
Make up For Ever isn't sold in stores here and online is SO expensive. I love their Aqua Eyes eyeliner so decided to give their primer, foundation and powder a go. It helped that this set was on special too!

Dolly Wink eyelash in No. 4 - Feminine Style
Dolly Wink falsies!! I've been desperate to try these after reading so many good things about them. I'm a noob at applying them though but hopefully that will improve!


Dejavu Fiberwig Extra Long mascara is my favourite. I love how it lengthens my lashes and removal is so easy!

Skinfood Orange Nail Remover Jelly, Black Sesame Hot Mask and Dark circle Concealer cream in 1
Some Skinfod goodies! I was really curious about the nail jelly so decided to buy it. I'll let you know how I go with it! I have dark circles unfortunately so the concealer was high on my wishlist.


I tried out the Laneige Water Sleeping Pack Ex that Jennifer recommended and it worked wonderfully! So I decided to go back to the hidden beauty store and picked up a full size one for myself =p Also a full size tube of Vitacreme B 12 Regenerative Cream for the heck of it!

The Body Shop Tea Tree Blemish Fade Night Lotion, Tea Tree Blemish Gel and Tea Tree Oil
Some items from The Body Shop Tea Tree range. I love the tea tree oil!


I was so excited to see EOS lipbalms in Sasa I picked up all 3 that were available! I've been using the lemon one and it's divine =) Also picked up the Vaseline Lip Therapy in Rosy Lips because it's not available here in Aus! We get the other 2 boring ones but not the nice one wouldn't you know.


I didn't pick up any My Beauty Diary masks last year so made up for it this year. I got the special assorted pack (only available once a year as Jennifer tells me!) only available at Mannings as well as some Princess Carnival masks too.


My beautiful new Canon Powershot S95!! I've been thinking about getting a new Canon camera for a while now but I wasn't sure what to get. My cousin took out this baby at dinner and I tried it out and was immediately blown away by the quality of the pics. I had to have it! I've yet to make the full transition to my new camera though as I need to learn how to use it properly first. I got it from Fortress and I saved over $150Aus!! Plus I got all the things below thrown in for free too! The exorbitant prices we pay Down Under REALLY make me hate living in Aus sometimes >=(


Freebies with camera: Fortress cup, camera tripod, camera case, spare battery and card reader. Man I love HK!!!


I didn't include this in the overall pic but I thought I would mention it. I use a bag that has absolutely no compartments so I picked up this bag divider to use. It does the job well and the main selling point for me was that it was pink with polka dots lol.


I totally forgot to include this when I 1st posted! I flew Virgin Atlantic this time (it was CRAP - never flying them again but that's for another day) so I was able to purchase my first Urban Decay palette! This is the Deluxe shadow box as I'm sure you're all well aware. Can I say again how lucky international ladies are in terms of brands and products??


Now I normally am not a Crocs girl, however how could I walk past these Hello Kitty flats???!! The bow! The cute detail at the back! Plus I am desperate for some comfy shoes x( I also got 2 Hello Kitty Jibbitz but they seem to have gotten lost in transit =S


We brought back SO many snacks it didn't fit properly in one frame so I'll just show you some cool Phuket treats that the boy's sister brought back for me from her trip there instead =)


Phew! I hope you enjoyed seeing my big haul =) Let me know in the comments if you'd like to see anything in detail etc. I'm off to the Linkin Park concert tonight with the boy so normal blogging schedule should resume soon after!

Thanks for looking as always =D